Oscars Producer Will Packer Says Authorities Were ‘Prepared’ to Arrest Will Smith After Chris Rock Altercation

usmagazine.com:

An unexpected bump. Will Packer, who produced the 2022 Oscars, is opening up about what went down behind the scenes after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock.A clip from Packer’s Friday, April 1, Good Morning America interview aired as part of ABC World News Tonight on Thursday, March 31, during which he claimed that authorities were at the ready after Smith, 53, rushed the Dolby Theatre stage.“They were saying, ‘This is battery.’ That was the word they used in that moment,” Packer alleged. “They said, ‘We will go get him.

We are prepared. We will go get him right now. You can press charges. We can arrest him.'”However, Packer claimed that Rock, 57, put a stop to the chaos. “They were laying out the options, and as they were talking, Chris … was being very dismissive of those options,” the producer recalled. “He was like, ‘No, I’m fine.’ … Even to the point where I said, ‘Rock, let them finish.’ The LAPD officers finish laying out what his options were.

And they said, ‘Would you like us to take any action?’ And he said, ‘No.'”Packer previously poked fun at the shocking moment, tweeting after the Sunday, March 27, awards show, “Welp… I said it wouldn’t be boring #Oscars.” He went on to describe the altercation as “a very painful moment” for him “on many levels.”Smith stunned everyone in attendance at the Academy Awards on Sunday when he got up out of his seat in response to a joke Rock made about Jada Pinkett Smith‘s shaved head. (​​The Red Table Talk host, 50, has alopecia.)“Keep my wife’s name out your f–king mouth,” the I Am Legend actor shouted when he returned after slapping Rock across the face.Us Weekly previously confirmed that Rock declined to file an official report with the Los Angeles Police Department.